Posts filed in Discomfort


Slaughterhouse-5, by Kurt Vonnegut

Slaugtherhouse-5, or the Children’s Crusade. A Duty-Dance with Death.
By Kurt Vonnegut.
156 pages, Torstein Bugge Høverstad’s Norwegian translation from 1970.
First published in English in 1969.
How to describe Slaughterhouse-5? Some other random site that had a review of it simply raved on about it being the brilliant ramblings of a madman on LSD, but I feel that [...]

An Exercise in Humility

About two weeks ago I made some rather rash statements about the nature of Roman intellectualism, which I just a few days later realized were founded almost entirely on my prejudices against the poor Romans. Thus, I felt that a post would be required to make up for things. This post, to be specific.
In addtion [...]

I feel mighty clever!

Because, you know, it took my until yesterday to think of subscribing to TOotS and xkcd through RSS…

Concerning Documentaries

I just watched an Australian documentary about Mullah Krekar (whose real name is Najmuddin Faraj Ahmad), one of the founders of the militant, Kurdish, Islamist organization Ansar al Islam, and an asylum seeker in Norway. The guy whom the Americans tried to use to link Saddam Hussein to Osama bin Laden a couple of years [...]

The Crow

I watched The Crow earlier tonight, and I have to say I very much doubt that it would be as famous as it is today if Brandon Lee hadn’t met such an unfortunate end during the shooting of the movie. Cos boy, this was mediocre stuff.
First of all, the plot. Eric Draven, only described as [...]

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

A Midsummer Night’s Dream seemed like a really boring play, at least when compared to the splendid Othello (Iago for teh win! ), so I decided to skip reading it, and just go to the showing of the 1999 movie that was arranged as part of this course I’m taking.
The movie didn’t exactly make [...]

Ullr, the onion of war!

From Wikipedia’s kenning article:
Bárum Ullr, of alla
ímunlauks, á hauka
fjöllum Fyrisvalla
fræ Hákonar ævi;
nú hefr fólkstríðir Fróða
fáglýjaðra þýja
meldr í móður holdi
mellu dolgs of folginn
Simply based on meaning, i.e. without kennings, the passage runs: “Accursed King Harald! We carried gold in our arms during all of Hakon’s life; now the enemy of the people has hidden gold in [...]

Gudenes Fall

Gudenes Fall, by Cornelius Jakhelln.
2007, 428 pages.
Now, this might be a little weird. Gudenes Fall (The Fall of the Gods) is a book that most likely never will be translated into English, and yet, I choose to review it in English. But hey, my English is still worse than my Norwegian.
In the year 1000 AD, [...]

Scrubs, season 5

Yeah, yeah, I know: they’re occasionally repeating the same jokes, and the whole concept might be getting a tad tired.
But I still love it. I still think it’s fun to watch the Janitor torment JD, I still laugh when Turk tries to stand up to Carla, I still pity JD one moment only to hate [...]

Movies Galore: A Summary

It’s nearly two months since my last movie review — a review, I might add, where I was unreasonably hard on the reviewed movie, as the fact that I’m in a foul mood shouldn’t really count against it. Anyway, since then I’ve watched a lot of movies: excellent movies, great movies, good movies, mediocre movies, [...]

A silent prayer of thanks to the patriarchate and all male chauvinists

Oh, patriarchal social structure!
Oh, male chauvinists of the past!
I praise thee!
While thy general wisdom might leave something to be desired, and while I dislike thee quite strongly, thee have done me — and in fact the whole nation — a great service!
And while thy rancid ignorance and silly prejudices have also done us all great [...]

A Clockwork Orange

I know I’ve often asked for more resistance in movies, for less comfort, and more challenges. But this is too bleedin’ much. It’s a fucking nightmare, is what it is.
Still, though, a fascinating nightmare. Kinda like a train wreck. 8.5/10.
And to think I was 11 or 12 the first time I watched it…

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